With the somewhat naturalistic title Brides/Canoe, Soccer Mom has released an epic supernova, a two song CD single with 100m Records. Since their 10” You Are Not Going To Heaven on the New York based label, they’ve gained a new drummer, Justin Kehoe, and have continued honing thick experimental noise into lush, poignant pop.
With a thin, room mic’d guitar strum, “A Canoe Shy” deceptively sets the volume low, and with an appropriately abstract title the duo of vocalist Dan Parlin and William Scales create impressive rolling waves of sustained distortions. Soccer Mom has always been interested in an impossibly dense sound as an abstract stand in for melody. Justin wastes no time in shattering all expectations with abrupt time signature changes, a lost snare hit or downbeat, enough to foreshadow the constantly changing rhythms we’re in for. The bent, eerie harmonies rise out of the experimental haze, reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine, with the calculated, cool distance of Sonic Youth.
Dan Parlin has kept his powerful vocal delivery trapped under a loose echo, deliberately burying itself in the mix, to allow for the expansive space of this peaking chorus. Meticulously crafted dynamics that tear the track down as quickly as they build it up, in a perpetual state of tension. Justin approaches a slower moment by doubling the speed of the high hat while pounding out fills. It’s not a new direction for Soccer Mom, just icing on the cake of their heavy dense sound.
“Brides” starts with a lone tom beat and bassline, landing heavy on the initial hit, the anxiety building towards the inevitable wall of noise to shatter in. Somehow it doesn’t jump into the obvious place holder, they let the noise wave crash and fall back a few times before unleashing the overwhelming tsunami. Soccer Mom allows for these huge feeling spaces, deftly aware of their internal musical landscape and sparingly using a unique set of fractured dynamics to set the scene. But they won’t let it remain this pretty and put together, deliberately inserting off kilter, out of sync harmonics in true Blonde Redhead style. It’s the moment where they break the spell and betray their unpredictable hand behind the scenes.
Soccer Mom continues to explore the possibilities of dissonance with layered overdriven guitar. They release any expectations and take you along for this surprising ride into epic pop places, delivering a sample of what’s coming on their full length in early 2013.
Stream Brides/Canoe below:
[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/100m-records/sets/soccer-mom-brides-canoe-single/[/soundcloud]
